User story mapping for a sane backlog

Margareta Gajne Löfvenholm, Freelancing UX & Servicedesigner

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Margareta Gajne Löfvenholm, Freelancing UX & Servicedesigner

@gajlof, gaine.se

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insane backlogs100 rows in an excel sheet with 20 columns?

pic from www.amazon.com

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user focus?it’s in there somewhere

pic from www.amazon.com

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User story mappingby Jeff Patton

pic from jpattonassociates.com

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pic from www.thoughtworks.com

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ingredients

• service or product idea

• user personas

• user’s activities

• user stories

pic from visualpun.ch

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user activity

user activity

user activity

user activity

sub-activity

sub-activity

user persona

user story

user story

user story user story

user story

user story

user story

user story

release 1

release 2

release 3

service or product

idea

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fika

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our case…

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IdeaBrief

BigIdeaGroup

Ourcompany,theBigIdeaGroup,BIGforshort,isactuallyasmallcompanythatdoesoutsourcedproductdesignanddevelopment.

Whatwe’regoodat

We’reespeciallygoodandbuildingmobileapps–appsforiOS,Android,andnowMicrosoft’smobileplatform

Unlikeourcompetitors,we’regoodatwholeproductdesign.Wedon'tjusttakerequirementsandbuildwhatpeopleask,althoughwecan.Insteadwefocusonunderstandingandsolvingproblems.Weuseeffectivediscoverypracticetoidentifyminimalviableproducts.Weemphasizemaximizingproductoutcomeswhileminimizingtheamountwespendondevelopment.Inthiswayweprovideabetterreturnoninvestmentforourcustomers.

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IdeaBrief

Ourcustomers:

Ourcustomersareusuallylargerorganizationswhodon’tdevelopsoftwareproductsastheirprimarybusiness,butdoserveconsumers.Thisincludes:

• Banks

• Insurancecompanies

• Airlines

• Hotelchains

Ourchallenges

Ourcustomersdon’talwaysunderstandourkeydifferentiators,especiallyourabilitytocollaboratewiththemtodesignsuccessfulproducts.Asaconsequencewe:

• SpendlotsoftimerespondingtobidswherecustomersgiveusspeciNicrequirements

• Sellourservicesatlowmarginstocompetewithoffshorevendors

• Getfeweropportunitiestodotheworkwe’regoodatandenjoy–realproductdesignanddevelopment

• Getblamedwhenourcustomer’sideasfail

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IdeaBrief

Ourbigidea:CreateLists:asimpleubiquitousmobileappWebelievethatifwecreateasimpleconsumermobileappthatwe’llbeabletodemonstrateourstrongabilitytodesignandbuildsimple,valuableapplications. Thissimplemobileappwillhelpgiveourcompanyattentioninthemarketplace. Asaconsequence,ourtargetcustomersseekusouttoduplicatethesuccesswe’vehadwithourproductbutontheirbehalf. Everyonewins.

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Proto-personas

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small business users couples and families habitual list makers and note takers

Proto-personas for these 3 type of users and customers

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MVP

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Pic from http://blog.crisp.se/2014/06/02/martinchristensen/en-guide-till-minimum-viable-products